


fossils

by gotham_ruaidh



Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [48]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 00:59:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7131662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotham_ruaidh/pseuds/gotham_ruaidh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imagine Claire telling Jamie about dinosaurs</p>
            </blockquote>





	fossils

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted at [Imagine Claire & Jamie](http://imagineclaireandjamie.tumblr.com/post/144810842738/imagine-claire-telling-jamie-about-dinosaurs) on tumblr

She was already asleep when he finally slipped into the bedroom. His heart ached at the sight of her - half slumped against the pillow, book still open on her lap, candle still burning on the nightstand. She’d waited up for him, despite her own exhaustion - because they hadn’t really had a chance to *talk* all day, what with Roger and Ian finishing up the MacKenzies’ new cabin, needing to manage what exactly to do with the surplus crop of late summer barley, finally hearing from the Moravian settlers about exchanging some pigs for the linen and candles that Claire so loved to have in the new Big House…

…and he couldn’t resist telling one more bedtime story to his grandchildren, all snug in the spare bedroom downstairs, excited to finally be moving into their new house tomorrow. On the one hand he was glad to finally get more space in the house to Claire and himself - but on the other, he just felt more *settled* when he knew his family was close, and safe. Jem had worn himself out helping his Da and cousin with roofing the new cabin, but Mandy had been wide awake.

So he’d curled onto the foot of her cot, rubbing sleep from his eyes, sharing with his granddaughter the stories his Mam had told him as a lad.

On and on the stories had come - peppered with Mandy’s questions and his clarifications - even long after Jem had drifted into dreamland. She was so inquisitive - so sharp - so eager to learn.

And even after she had finally fallen asleep, Jamie allowed himself a few lovely, still moments of quiet, just breathing the same air as his beloved grandchildren, watching the flickering light from the bedside lamp flicker over their heartbreakingly beautiful faces. Faces he had thought were lost to him forever - faces his heart rejoiced to see at the breakfast table every morning.

Jamie gently lay Claire’s book - a monograph on the medicinal plants of the Americas, sent in the latest package from John Grey - on the bedside table, blew out the candle, pulled off his shirt, and slid under the covers.

Even in sleep, Claire turned to him, seeking shelter.

He gladly provided it, wrapping his arms around her back and tucking her face against his shoulder. Finally, finally he relaxed.

“Are you awake?” Her voice was muffled, slurred with sleep.

“Mmphmm. Dinna tell me ye want _that_ , Sassenach. Even that part of me canna stand up right now.”

“One-track mind,” she teased, wedging one knee between his thighs. “You were gone an awfully long time.”

“Ach, weel. Wee Mandy was too excited to sleep - but a few fairy stories from her Grandda did just the trick.”

He buried his nose in Claire’s curls - even more riotous than usual - and inhaled deeply.

“Fairy stories? About what exactly?” Her arm eased across his back, fingers settling in the groove of his spine, thumb tracing - caressing - his scars.

“The usual. Kelpies. Fairies. Waterhorses in lochs. That kind of thing.”

“Waterhorses in lochs?”

“Aye. So?”

He felt her smile against his bare shoulder. “I want to tell you something. I’ve never shared it with you.”

He pulled back a bit, brows furrowed. Christ, she was so beautiful in the moonlight.

“Aye? What is it then?”

She smiled. Radiant.

“Did I ever tell you that when we were collecting rents for the MacKenzies, I saw a waterhorse?”

“Did ye, then?” He eased up on one elbow, resting his head in his upturned palm, his other hand cupping the crest of her hip, thumb dipping into her navel.

“I did. I was all alone - and I didn’t see it for very long - but I definitely saw it. It’s real. They’re real.”

“Aye. Just like the women who travel through the fairy stones, in the songs.”

“Exactly.” She paused, considering. “You know, I think I know what the waterhorse actually is.”

“What do ye mean? A waterhorse is a waterhorse, is it not?”

Her belly quivered with a small laugh. “Well, to be scientific about it - it’s a plesiosaur. A form of dinosaur.”

She didn’t have to see his face to know that he was thinking. Or just humoring her.

“Di-no-saur. What’s that?”

“Oh, big prehistoric reptiles that used to walk the earth and swim the seas. Many were larger than the house, if you can believe that.”

“Ye’ve asked me to believe a great many things in our life together - I dinna suppose this would be any different.” He pulled her a bit closer and kissed her forehead. “Ye say ‘were.’ So these di-no-saurs dinna live in yer own time, then?”

“No - they died out millions of years ago.”

“Millions? But how do ye know about them, then?”

“The bones, of course. Or fossils of the bones, to be precise. I remember Brianna’s fourth-grade class did an extensive study of dinosaurs and fossils - I chaperoned a trip to a museum where we saw the great big skeletons, all set up with wire to show just how big they were in life.”

“Old bones? That minds me of something Jem found by the burn a few days back - a wee stone wi’ some shells in it, and us so far inland too.”

She rolled to her back, and Jamie effortlessly - wordlessly - automatically rolled atop her, hands braced on either side of her shoulders. He bumped the tip of her nose with his, and  they met in a long kiss.

“Old bones? Fossils?”

She smiled against his chin. “Yes. That’s the word - _will_ be the word.”

He lined up his hips with hers. “I dinna suppose ye mind being marrit to my old bones, then?”

“As long as you don’t _ever_  call me a fossil, then I won’t.”

She tilted her pelvis, and he slid home.


End file.
